The disclosure relates generally to a multi-layer circuit member and, more particularly, to a multi-layer circuit member having an improved reference circuit.
Electronic devices commonly use multi-layer circuit boards or members for transmitting and receiving high speed as well as high data rate signals. With the desire for higher speed electronics in the same or smaller footprints, an ongoing challenge exists to increase the density of the multi-layer circuit boards. Some multi-layer circuit boards include multiple reference or ground planes embedded within the circuit board together with various signal conductors for transmitting the desired information or data along or through the circuit board. While such reference planes act as an electrical shield, they also typically act as a portion of the return path for the various signal conductors of the circuit board. Energy or noise transferred to a first reference plane from another source such as another signal conductor or another reference plane acting as a return path for another signal conductor may affect signals conducted by signal conductors coupled to the first reference plane.
Stacked modular jacks may use a single multi-layer circuit board to pass signals from a primary circuit board to the pair of aligned ports. Energy associated with one port may sometimes be undesirably transferred to the circuitry of the other port which may cause errors in the system and otherwise render the system less reliable or inoperative. It is therefore desirable to minimize the impact that any energy source has on a set of signal conductors even though the signal conductors are separated from the energy source by one or more reference planes.